Fundies and Hope Chests?

[Sola]

Not fundie, although was raised christian with my dad being a minister. I had a Bottom Drawer, same thing as a hope chest. From being about 16 i was given little things to add to it, mainly by my gran. She would also say 'these are your when your own home' and show me bits of china etc. I still have a set of china plates she gave me, a teapot and some ivory handled cutlery. People dont do it now but when i was a teen back in the early 80s most girls had a bottom drawer. Maybe we were the last none fundie generation to have one.

[pixydust]

My husband's parents bought him a Christmas ornament every year and when he moved out they gave them all to him. I really liked that. His first Christmas tree was beautiful, I bet.

All 3 of my kids have Hallmark ornament collections, they will get to take those when they move out. Between those and other random ornaments they will each have around 30 for their trees after college! :)

[tabbytiger]

My homeschooling fundie/fundie-lite aunt and uncle do hope chests for their daughters. Their chests are very specifically marriage/baby/home making focused, since the girls aren't really supposed to live on their own till marriage. I wanted one when I was little, but I'm glad my parents weren't into that kind of thing!

On the other hand, I love the idea of stockpiling useful hand me downs and sale items for the day your kids are on their own. I didn't have any help like that, and even with ikea and thrift stores it was pretty rough trying to furnish a whole apartment on my own, with my first low-paying post college job, student loans, etc. If I were to do that for my kids, I'd try to get stuff that's basic and not too nice, so they wouldn't feel any guilt/obligation about keeping it forever.

[GenerationCedarchip]

Pretty much every girl I knew in the fundie church had a hope chest of some sort. I don't think this was uncommon - the number of fundies I've seen mentioning how they save issues of "Above Rubies"(Why?? That has got to be the most useless magazine ever - my cats won't even poop on it!) and "King's Blooming Rose" and similar items for their hope chests is just scary.

I was a real slacker on the embroidery and linen accumulation, so I filled my own hope chest with books and cat toys with a fancy tablecloth on top in case anyone went snooping.

[browngrl]

I never had hope chest and I've never wanted one. My parents sacrificed a lot to immigrate to Canada and they did not have much in the way of material goods for many years. Maybe that is why they covered all the good furniture in plastic and put all the good dishes/bedding etc into storage - all the stuff waiting for some unspecified time in the future to use. So I decided that I would get what I needed when I needed it and then use it right away. I made a conscious choice not wait to use the good dishes/flatware/linens etc. So no regrets about not having a hope chest here.

edited to add: I am also glad I did not buy things before I needed them because over the years my tastes have changed. As a teen I did like a more baroque-ish style and now I favour a very spare,clean style.

[dawbs]

I tried to convince my parents to get me one...but mostly because I needed (still need, FWIW) a good place to keep things like great-grandma's quilts and her 'china' that I inherited.

Instead it's in cardboard in the basement.

[llv]

When I was younger I was working towards fundie lite and did have a hope chest i asked for as a birthday gift. It was actually a really pretty early 1920s Lane chest and I was refinishing it for a while. Then I became an atheist and never really worked on it and sold it off. I never put anything inside it and it was just out in the garage halfway stripped of paint.

I go to thrift stores and yard sales a lot and have actually started to amass home stuff for later, mostly kitchen stuff, but I don't keep it in a chest or anything. My dishes are made up of hand thrown clay stoneware dishes I pick up here and there so none of them match. I like 'em though, I think they're eclectic. I have some random nice teak kitchen tools and dinnerware. So I have a sort of "theme" when I shop. Some of my things are in the kitchen with the family dishes but most of them are boxed up in the garage.

Since I am not contingent on marrying someone I want to have good stuff when I move out and not wait for wedding registries and all that crap. Hence my own Kitchenaid mixer, linens and and stuff all before moving out. I may never get married. Maybe I will, and maybe I won't be showered with gifts. You're never too young to own and use stuff you like. :D

If I recall correctly there is a fundie lite ebook out there, i think it was called "hope chest society", too lazy to look now though.